For years it has been a standard practice with hunters to use various scents to attract wild game animals to a particular location. Another common practice is to use various scents such as cedar and earth scent to mask human odor. While some scents attract some animals the same scent may repel others. For instance, in deer hunting, dominant buck urine will usually attract the dominant buck of the area but most often scare away the immature bucks and does. Coyote urine will attract other coyotes, however, it will typically scare away all deer. Prior art in the field of wild game scent dispersal are numerous and varied from fan propelled, heat actuated, dripping type, wick diffused to scent canisters. Primarily, though, they all have one common disadvantage and that is failing to provide a way of eliminating leftover scent residue inside the device itself when switching from one scent to another. Thus ensuring that cross-contamination will take place unless properly cleaned. For example, a hunter starts the day off using dominant buck urine as a scent and sights no deer, then decided mid-day to change to a scent that would increase the chances of seeing any deer. If the scent device is still contaminated with the dominant buck urine it will scare away the immature bucks and does. The prior art devices would require the hunter to have to deodorize the device in between scents and in some instances disassemble the device to do so. This is not convenient in any situation and certainly not convenient or practical in the field in which cleaning agents are usually not at hand.
Prior art devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,541 to Simpson (1994), U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,016 to Cox (2000), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,643 to Gawel (1999), all show a scent device using a fan in which the receptacle to hold the actual scent is located inside of a chamber in the device itself. When air from the fan passed through the chamber it would allow scent molecules to build up on the chamber walls.
Simpson, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,541 (1994), shows a game scent dispensing apparatus that has a scent receptacle inside the apparatus in which air from a fan is driven through a tube over the scent and into another chamber before it is expelled. Thus, allowing scent molecules to build up on the chamber walls.
Gawel, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,643 (1999), shows an apparatus to enhance the use of scents that has a scent receptacle comprising of a wire with a liquid retaining sponge member on the end to contain the scent hanging from the top of the apparatus cavity. This apparatus would allow the scent to drip onto the cavity bottom as well as scent molecules to collect on the interior walls of the housing.
Malone, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,648 (1998), shows a scent dispenser in form of a wicking type. To change scents without cross-contamination in the field a hunter would need to have another wick, cleaning agents, and another container to put prior scent in.
Daniels, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,025 (1992), shows an animal scent heater in which the primary housing, wick, heating element, and scent container would have to be deodorized.
Cox, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,016 (2000), shows a scent dispenser in which a canister is placed inside a chamber and a fan blows air across the canister through the chamber and out a vent hole. Here again the inner walls of the chamber would allow scent molecules to collect and make the device in need of decontaminating between scent types. Another problem with this design is nothing holds the canister securely in place inside the chamber preventing it from tipping over. Depending on how much scent was inside the canister and at what location in the chamber the canister slid the center of gravity would always change making the hanging apparatus virtually unpredictable and unstable.
For years it has also been a common practice for hunters to arrive in the woods before daylight and leave after sunset. This poses another problem hunters face when using scent dispensing devices in which location and retrieval of such devices is often difficult after dark. A light that would go on in the dark might prove beneficial for this problem but could also be detrimental in the pre-dawn darkness in the event that the light could scare away what you are trying to attract. The aforementioned prior art devices fail to overcome these problems.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.